With a rare late-night vote on New Year’s Day, the House passed a bipartisan compromise to extend the majority of Bush-era tax cuts, delay automatic spending reductions for two months and fix a number of expiring tax and spending provisions. The final vote was 257-157, passing with 172 Democrats and 85 Republicans.

The climactic final vote capped a wild, topsy turvy few days of action on Capitol Hill that exhibited both savvy deal making and the paralysis that has marked the entirety of the 112th Congress. In the final analysis, Republicans were forced to swallow the first major tax increase in two decades, and Barack Obama was able to at least partially fulfill a campaign promise of raising taxes on upper income Americans.

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who struggled to sell the deal to conservatives, could not conjure up support from a majority of Republicans who refused to support a tax hike.

And in the clearest sign of a split in House Republican leadership, Boehner cast a rare vote in favor of the bill, while Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) opposed the measure. House Budget Chair Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) voted for the accord.

Obama said Tuesday night he would sign the bill, as what he hoped will be part of an eventual larger agreement on new revenue and budget cuts.

“We all recognize that this law is just one step in the broader effort to strengthen our economy and broaden opportunity for everybody,” Obama said late Tuesday at the White House. “Unfortunately, there just wasn’t enough support for that kind of large agreement in a lame duck session of Congress.”

However, he warned Congress that there could be “catastrophic” consequences for the global economy if there was not an agreement reached on the debt ceiling.

“While I will negotiate over many things, I will not have another debate with this Congress over whether they should pay the bills for what they’ve racked up,” Obama said. “We can’t not pay bills that we’ve already incurred.”

The vote came just in time before further damage was done to the nation’s economic confidence — there was concern that the world’s financial markets would be spooked by Washington inaction when markets reopen Wednesday.

The tax and spending package is also notable for what it doesn’t do: It doesn’t address the debt limit, entitlement reform or deficit reduction in any significant way. Those battles lie just two months ahead, when Congress will debate raising the nation’s borrowing authority.